The government draws comics

The most interesting form of public transport in Hong Kong, at least to this humble resident, are its minibuses, which were formerly and more evocatively called maxicabs, and are legally called Public Light Buses. Hundreds of thousands of commuters ride them every day, but they are also notorious for their idiosyncratic drivers, some of whom, especially those in charge of the red minibuses at night, drive as though they have a death wish. The supposed undesirability of a death wish in public bus drivers by those boring bureaucrats in their ivory offices and those spineless politicians in the Legislative Council has led to the legislation of the Road Traffic (Amendment) Ordinance 2012. Among other effects, this legally [but not physically, for now] limits their speed at all times to 80 kilometres per hour (just under 50 miles per hour). The ordinance also requires the display of this nannying and ugly notice:

So sad.

I just found out that the Hong Kong government’s Department of Transport publishes a yearly newsletter for those involved in driving and operating the Special Administrative Region’s minibuses. In a sign of the limits of bilingualism here, as well as the undeniable truth that every driver of public transport here that I’ve ever seen is Chinese, the newsletter is only in Chinese. Or, even better, it is written to some extent in Cantonese, and also uses comics to transmit its message of wholesome, healthy minibus driving. Here’s the latest newsletter, and two pages from it (4 and 5, specifically) excerpted for your perverted delectation: